This article discusses different types of brain injuries and some facts your doctor wouldn’t tell you.

The brain is the organ responsible for everything that makes a person human – emotion, intelligence, consciousness, movement, and sensation. It’s for this reason that brain injury is so often life-altering.

Brain injury can harm the very essence of a person and may stifle future growth opportunities. Of course, there are many types of brain injuries, some more serious than others. The overall effects will largely depend on the type of brain injury, the seriousness of the injury, and the extent to which such injury has affected a patient’s life and work opportunities.

The categories

Brain injuries are separated into two broad categories. These are: traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury.

Traumatic brain injuries are caused by the application of an external force to the head. While, acquired brain injury is caused by other conditions such as a stroke, tumors, disease, toxin exposure, and oxygen deprivation.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injuries may be closed or open (skull fracture). They are caused by an external force.

Facts your Doctor wouldn’t tell you

Typically, these types of brain injuries arise in personal injury cases (slip and fall, motor vehicle accident, etc.), criminal law cases (assault and battery), and workplace accident cases. Your Doctor wouldn’t tell you these details.

Types of Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injuries include concussions, contusions, diffuse axonal injuries, and penetration injuries.

Concussion

Concussions are the most common type of traumatic brain injury. Concussions are caused by direct impact trauma to the head. This trauma can be caused by falling, getting punched or kicked or shot, shaking, whiplash in a car, or any number of other possible incidences.

Though concussions are often accompanied by a loss of consciousness, loss of consciousness is not a necessary result of a concussion. It’s possible to have suffered a concussion with only non-obvious symptoms – confusion, dizziness, and a foggy mind.

If you’ve suffered direct impact trauma to your head and think you may have had a concussion, you should see a doctor. Severe concussions can result in permanent damage.

Contusion

Contusions, like concussions, are also caused by direct impact trauma to the head. A contusion is essentially localized bleeding in the brain. Contusions may need to be surgically removed, as blood clot formation at the contusion site can be lethal. There may also be contusions apart from the direct impact site.

A contrecoup contusion is when the force of impact is so great that the brain slams into the opposite side of the skull, creating a second contusion on the second point of impact. A coup contusion is the initial point of contact.

Diffuse Axonal Injuries

Diffuse axonal injury is caused by severe shaking or rotational forces. This creates tears in the brain structures as the skull shears the edges of the brain. Tearing creates neurochemical disruptions throughout the brain.

The tears may result in permanent brain damage, coma, or death. Depending on which brain structures were torn, symptoms can be quite varied. There may be motor function disruption, memory disruption, motor sensation disruption, olfactory disruption, and more.

Penetration Injuries

Penetration injuries are caused by sharp objects entering the skull and brain. When the object goes through the brain, there may be lost tissue (that exits the skull), shearing, tearing, and rupturing of accessory tissue. This can be fatal or may cause significant and long-term effects.

Acquired Brain Injury

Acquired brain injuries aren’t necessarily dependent on an external application of force. That’s not to say that acquired brain injuries aren’t “caused” by others.

Facts your Doctor wouldn’t tell you

There are personal injury and criminal law cases of acquired brain injury – for instance, drowning incidents and strangulation incidents.

However, individuals in acquired brain injury cases more often bring lawsuits against the medical provider, who may have worsened the condition, or who may not have addressed the condition properly before the permanent injury was caused.

For example, a patient may have a stroke at his house and be transported to the nearest hospital. At the hospital, the physician may not adhere to the reasonable standard of care and may, in the process, allow the injury (oxygen deprivation) to continue long enough to cause permanent damage where it otherwise would have been prevented by efficient action.

The patient will, therefore, have a medical malpractice claim against the physician and possibly, the hospital as well, for his or her acquired brain injury. Your Doctor will never tell you this fact.

Types of Acquired Brain Injury

There are two common acquired brain injuries, anoxia, and hypoxic brain injury:

Anoxia

Anoxia is caused by oxygen deprivation such that the brain doesn’t receive any oxygen. Within a relatively short time span, cell death occurs, which can result in serious functional damage to different brain systems and possible death. There are different kinds of anoxia, which include anoxic (standard anoxia), anemic (blood isn’t carrying oxygen), and toxic (toxins are blocking oxygen use), among others.

Hypoxic Brain Injury

Hypoxic brain injury is similar to anoxia, except that oxygen deprivation is not absolute. With a hypoxic brain injury, the brain receives some oxygen, but the oxygen levels are still dangerously unsatisfactory. Like anoxia, cell death may still occur, though at a slower rate. The eventual cell death, if left untreated, may also result in functional damage and possible death.

Seek Immediate Medical Attention

This article is not intended to diagnose or treat brain injuries. If you think you may have a brain injury, you should seek immediate medical attention or consult with your doctor.

The summary

Brain injuries are generally grouped into two broad categories. These are: traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury.

Traumatic brain injuries are caused by the application of an external force to the head. While, acquired brain injury is caused by other conditions such as a stroke, tumors, disease, toxin exposure, and oxygen deprivation.

The facts your doctor wouldn’t tell you are that: there are personal injury and criminal law cases for both traumatic brain injuries, and acquired brain injuries. This is especially so, where it concerns negligence resulting from medical personnel.

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